How to Exercise at Home
By Steve Silverman
Beginning an exercise program will help you feel better about most aspects of your life. You don't have to join an expensive club or buy a lot of exercise equipment to start an exercise program; you can exercise at home and get in shape. Exercising will increase your endurance, improve your mood, and help prevent the onset of disease, according to the American Medical Association.
Instructions
Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Do some stomach crunches to get your abdominal muscles in shape. Hook your legs over the top of your bed and lift your head about 12 to 18 inches. Put your hands in back of your head but do not use them to help you lift your upper body. Do 15 crunches, raising and lowering your upper body, then take a 30-second break before doing another set.
Do step exercises while watching TV or listening to music. Purchase an exercise step at any sporting goods store and set the height at 8 inches or higher. By stepping up and stepping down, you can build leg and buttocks strength and improve your endurance. Step up with your right foot, up with your left foot, down with your right foot and down with your left foot. Follow this pattern for at least 10 minutes.
Skip rope for at least 10 minutes. You can do this exercise in front of the television. Start by bringing the rope from back to front, and as you become more accomplished you can go from front to back and vary the pace. This will build coordination, lower-body strength and endurance.
Do pushups. This is one of the oldest and most dependable exercises and it's outstanding for building upper-body strength. Lie face down, flat on the floor, with your hands at shoulder level. With your feet touching the floor, keeping your legs straight, push up with your arms until your elbows lock. Relax your arms and lower your body so your chest is about an inch from the floor. Do this 15 times, take a 30-second break, then repeat.
Walk in your neighborhood two to three miles every other day if the weather is fair. If you must stay indoors, walk up and down stairs for 15 minutes at a time. If there are two sets of stairs in your home with 10 steps each, walk up and down both sets twice, take a one-minute break and then repeat the stair walking set one more time. This will build endurance and lower-body strength.
Tips & Warnings
Write down the exercises you have done so you can keep track of your progress.
About The Author
Steve Silverman is an award-winning writer, covering sports since 1980. Silverman authored The Minnesota Vikings: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and Who's Better, Who's Best in Football -- The Top 60 Players of All-Time, among others, and placed in the Pro Football Writers of America awards three times. Silverman holds a Master of Science in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism.
